How Can I Measure My Progress In The Gym?
Exercise
Posted on January 09, 2015 by Jenny Cromack
If you’re a regular reader of our blogs you will probably know that as a team of personal trainers we are quite driven by results, after all, most of our clients come to us with a goal so it’s important that we are focused on helping them achieve their goals and results.
We measure our personal training client’s success by performing regular health assessments and fitness assessments with our clients and, I believe, any personal trainer worth their salt should also do this – otherwise, how will you know if you are achieving your goals? It is definitely key to measure your progress
Now, if you don’t have a personal trainer, don’t panic! Most gyms and personal trainers, including ourselves, offer these as a separate service either free or as a one-off cost. Most gyms will have a pair of scales on the gym floor, but if you only use the scales to monitor your progress then I would advise not to use these to purely measure your progress. By all means keep weighing yourself, but there are so many things that can cause your weight to fluctuate that I don’t think they should be the only way of measuring your success.
So how else can you measure your progress in the gym?
% Body Fat – If you are looking to lose weight, then really you are looking to lose body fat. Some scales will measure your body fat using a method called Bioelectrical Impedance, however this is not as accurate as measuring your body fat with skinfold calipers. We use skin fold calipers at the motive8 personal training studios to measure body fat and you achieve a much more accurate result.
Biosignature Analysis – Not all personal trainers offer this, and I think motive8 may be one of the few places in Leeds which do. Biosignature is another method of measuring skinfolds but it gives us a much more clearer understanding of how the hormones in your body are behaving and whether we need to change particular areas of your lifestyle such as training, sleep, food intake and stress in order to achieve better results.
Blood Pressure – Many people often have high blood pressure without even knowing. Make sure you get your blood pressure checked every 6 months, most gyms and health clubs should offer this for free.
Resting Heart Rate – Most blood pressure machines measure your resting heart rate. Whilst resting heart is an indicator of your fitness levels, due to external influences which may affect resting heart rate, it is better to have your fitness assessed using a specific protocol if you want a more accurate result.
Cardiovascular Fitness Assessment – There are so many tests around to measure your cardiovascular fitness, or specifically your VO2 Max. Personally, as a personal training team, we always choose a method which corresponds to the main activity our personal training clients take part in. For example with a runner we would use the bleep test or maybe the Conconi test.
Inches – Now, these are my favourite! Yes, I know people get motivated by seeing the numbers on the scales change, but the tape measure tells such a better story! And what’s more it’s a cheap and easy way you can measure your own progress at home. I’ve had personal training clients who have lost over 60 inches from their body…..that’s the equivalent of a 5 foot tall person (or me!!).
So this year, whilst you work towards your goals, remember to make sure you are also measuring your progress to make sure you stay on target to achieve your goals!
If you are interested in booking a health assessment with one of the motive8 personal training team then email us or call us on 0113 2430161.
Over the past few months we have written various article about goal setting, check them out here: